Daily Protection for your Pelvic Floor – Guest Blog by Bethany Learn

As the founder of an online exercise video portal, I’m amazed at how people intuitively know that the pelvic floor can and should be strengthened. They know that peeing their pants isn’t “normal,” and they think it has something to do with exercise, but they aren’t sure what. Many turn to Kegels, but a healthy pelvic floor has very little to do constant kegeling. What if I told you that you can fix your pelvic floor with three daily do’s and don’ts?

1. Every day, DO be conscious of getting your tailbone out from underneath you and DON’T slouch! The job of your pubbocoxxygeus muscle – a.k.a. your PC muscle – that connects from tailbone to pubic bone, is not to flex 500 times a day. It’s job is to support the weight of your internal organs as the final frontier. As Katy Bowman from Aligned and Well would say, your PC muscle isn’t supposed to be a tight hammock. It’s supposed to be a flexible, thick sheet. If you are sitting on your tailbone or tucking your hips under when you stand, then you are giving your PC’s job to your tailbone. A muscle gets weak when it isn’t allowed to do it’s job. So stand with your hips back, tail untucked. Sit up on your sits bones, not your tailbone.

2. Every day, DO go barefoot as much as possible and DON’T wear heels. Unless you’ve already joined the barefoot shoe movement, your shoes likely have some lift in the heel. A higher heel has a dramatic affect on the alignment of your pelvic floor and tummy. Heels are sexy because they make a woman’s backside look 25% bigger, right? But that’s an illusion! Any abnormal rise in the heel of a shoe causes chronic misalignment in the pelvis, tucking the tailbone under. If your tailbone is acting as your pelvic floor, and you do 500 kegels, then all you have is a tight, short, unused PC muscle.

3. Every day, DO wake up your core by tightening your transverse abdominus and DON’T do crunches or sit-ups. My research is proving that crunches and situps play a direct role in bulging the belly, not flattening it, and this leads to diastasis recti (split in your abs). If you’ve never worked your transverse, then not only is it pressing on the seam of your abs and causing a poochy tummy, but it’s also not keeping pressure off your pelvic floor. Your transverse and your PC muscle connect in the same place. A strong, tight transverse lets your PC stop being a hammock and start being a supple barrier. Click here to find out how to check your belly for diastasis.

4. Every day, DO lots of squats and DON’T overdo the kegels. It’s not that kegels are bad, it’s that squats are better. Just like your transverse abs connect at the same pubic junction as your PC muscle, your glutes connects at the same junction at your tailbone. You are activating your PC muscle every time you stick your booty out and squat down to pick things up off the floor. Squat while your brush your teeth. Squat while you garden. Squat while you fold laundry. Did I mention you should squat?

So that was four things: Tighten your transverse abdominal mucles, stop wearing heels, sit and stand with an untucked tailbone, and … what was that other thing? Oh yeah, SQUAT!!! My online exercise video portal is called Fit2B Studio, and it’s full of pelvic floor strengthening moves that you can do anytime anywhere for the cost of two mochas per month. Are you “fit to be” jumping around?

Bethany Learn is “fit to be” the founder and main instructor of all the workout videos within Fit2B Studio because she has a real passion for making fitness accessible to everyday people, especially those who find even the simplest movements daunting. She loves helping busy parents and those with limiting diseases and disabilities to approach exercise with confidence and enthusiasm.